Geguri may soon become the Overwatch League's first female player

Blizzard's Overwatch League is a showcase for the finest professional Overwatch players in the world. The finest male players, that is: So far no women have been selected to play on an OWL team, which has led to debate over the reasons why, and notably this Polygon piece about a hypothetical Overwatch Women's League.

That may be about to change, however, as Zarya phenom Kim "Geguri" Se-yeon recently said in a Twitch stream that she's accepted an offer from a "foreign" team.

"Regarding teams, just know that I'm going to a foreign team. I got many offers," she said, as translated by Reddit. She doesn't say which team, but the New York Excelsior seems to be driving the speculation train: One redditor, NYCMuffinMan, noted that it was the first OWL she followed (she currently follows them all), and more importantly, that the team already has players who speak fluent Korean—and that she synergizes particularly well with its lineup.

The expectation is that she won't go straight into the A-team, but will spend some time in the Contender's League as part of the Excelsior's academy team first. Where she goes from there will (hopefully) depend on her performance, but her skills are obvious and she already has experience with playing under pressure: Following high-profile accusations of cheating in 2016 (which were officially dismissed by Blizzard) she livestreamed an hour-long Zarya clinic just to make sure that everyone got the point.

Despite her public proclamation, nothing official has actually happened yet. "No player can be considered part of the Overwatch League until we've both received a contract for a given player from a team, and also subsequently approved that contract," an Overwatch spokesperson said in an email. "The League office has not received a contract for Geguri."

I've reached out to the New York Excelsior to enquire about the Geguri offer, and will update if I receive a reply.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.